


Golden Slumbers

by lamujerarana



Category: Fantastic Four (Comicverse), Spider-Man (Comicverse)
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Babyfic, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-06
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-04-30 01:33:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5145365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lamujerarana/pseuds/lamujerarana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter finds a baby in a dumpster and takes her home to the Baxter Building and his sleeping husband, Johnny.</p><p>***<br/>Peter climbs through the window as quietly as he can, but to no avail. Johnny wakes up the minute he hears the crying. Clearly, babies are not good at being stealthy.</p><p>“Peter,” he says, flicking on the lights and frowning over at him. “Peter, why do you have a baby? Have you started kidnapping babies now? Jonah’s gonna have a field day if he finds out, Peter.”</p><p>“I did not <em>kidnap</em> a baby, Flamebrain,” Peter hisses, rocking the baby back and forth desperately, but she won’t stop crying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Peter’s just busy doing what a spider does, stopping a mugging in an alley. So he doesn’t really know how to react when he hears a baby crying. It takes him an embarrassingly long time, and his fingers get a little numb from the cold, but finally he figures out the crying is coming from the dumpster. Sure enough, when he raises the lid, there’s a baby. Like, a pretty newborn-looking baby, not that Peter’s an expert.

She has thin little brown hair, and her face is red underneath those smudges of dirt. Peter can't tell what color her eyes are because they're scrunched up as tightly as her tiny little fists. But babies' eyes are usually blue when they're born, right? Peter's sure he's heard that somewhere. 

Well, Peter can’t just leave a baby in a dumpster. It’s cold out, and dumpsters are not appropriate places to leave babies. So he wraps her up in the pretty filthy blanket she was lying in (that he’ll be burning immediately, thanks), and swings home to the Baxter Building and his sleeping husband.

On the way there, he tries not to think about what could’ve led someone to abandon their baby in a dumpster. Must’ve been pretty terrible.

Peter climbs through the window as quietly as he can, but to no avail. Johnny wakes up the minute he hears the crying. Clearly, babies are not good at being stealthy.

“Peter,” he says, flicking on the lights and frowning over at him. “Peter, why do you have a baby? Have you started kidnapping babies now? Jonah’s gonna have a field day if he finds out, Peter.”

“I did not _kidnap_ a _baby_ , Flamebrain,” Peter hisses, rocking the baby back and forth desperately, but she won’t stop crying.

She’s so tiny Peter can practically hold her with just one hand. He tries not to let that break his heart.

“Oh,” Johnny says, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. “Is this one of those freaky spider things, then? Like the time you had six arms? Because I feel like you should’ve warned me this was a possibility  _before_ you put a ring on it.”

“The arm thing happened _once_ ,” Peter says irritably. “And no. She’s not mine. She was in a _dumpster_. I couldn’t leave a _baby_ in a _dumpster_ and now she won’t stop _crying_.”

Johnny sighs and walks over to Peter. “She’s probably hungry, genius,” he says. “Or maybe she needs her diaper changed.”

Peter stares at him, dumbfounded. Johnny is clearly some kind of baby genius, because neither of those things had ever even occurred to Peter. “Hey,” he says as it hits him. “That’s right. You have a niece and a nephew. You know babies.” He holds her out to Johnny. “ _Now make her stop crying_.”

Johnny rolls his eyes but he takes her in his arms reluctantly. It's immediately obvious that he knows how to hold a baby, unlike Peter who was only vaguely imitating what he'd seen on television.

She stops her caterwauling the moment Johnny presses her against his chest.

He’s not wearing a shirt because he never does when he sleeps. Peter’s never really felt like complaining about it before, and he doesn’t really think he’s about to start now.

Besides, the sight of a sleep-mussed Johnny with a baby pressed to his chest is so unbearably domestic that it’s making something warm and glowy settle in Peter’s chest.

Peter doesn’t want to think too much about what that says about him as a person.

Johnny smirks over at Peter, and the feeling vanishes as suddenly as it arrived. “Kid’s got good taste. I think I like her.”

Peter shoots him a positively withering glare. “ _Obviously_ she was just cold.”

“Oh,” Johnny says, and he must’ve immediately raised his body temperature, because the room gets a couple of degrees hotter. “Maybe.“ He smiles down at her, and that embarrassing feeling blossoms back into being in Peter’s chest. "But she also just likes me. Don’t deny it. I’m just good with kids.”

Peter makes a show of rolling his eyes. Johnny _is_ good with kids, but an ego boost is the last thing he needs. "Whatever,” he says, pushing past Johnny on his way to the kitchen. “I’m gonna get some milk to feed her. It needs to be warm, right?”

“Peter!” Johnny says reproachfully, and Peter screeches to a halt with his hand on the doorknob. He looks back at Johnny, wide-eyed. “You can’t feed a baby that kind of milk. What are you _thinking_? You need formula, and bottles, and special water. Go get some.” He sniffs the baby and makes a face. “Also diapers. And better clothes. This outfit is not stylish at all.” He shakes his head at it disapprovingly. "You want better clothes, don't you, baby?" he coos.

To be fair, the outfit maybe had been cute once, but it’s definitely not anymore, all covered in filth and grime and god knows what.

Someone had loved that baby, and put great care into clothing her. What could possibly have led to them leaving her in a dumpster on a cold fall night?

“She’s a _baby_ ,” Peter grumbles, heading back towards the window. “She doesn’t need to be _stylish_.”

“He’s just fashion-impaired, yes, he is,” Johnny tells the baby, who seems to find the baby-talk and the smiling face soothing. “Don’t listen to him.”

“Pot, kettle, Torch," Peter shoots back.

Johnny gives him a look. "He's also delusional, don't you think?" he tells her. "But if you stick around, you'll probably figure that out on your own, won't you, baby?"

Peter's glad his mask is on, because his eyes widen. "Stick around"? Does Johnny think they're keeping her? Like...adoption or something? 

Peter doesn't know how he feels about that. He's always wanted kids, but he doesn't know if he wants them _right_ _now_. This _soon_. He and Johnny have only been married for about a year, and he doesn't know if he's ready for kids yet. He'll have to think about it.

He maybe should've thought ahead to what would happen when he handed Johnny Storm a crying, abandoned baby. Of course he wouldn't stop to think about the ramifications.

But, hey, maybe they'll find her bio-parents and this'll all be moot anyhow.

Peter jumps up onto the ledge. He turns back when something occurs to him.

"Hey, give her a bath, would you?“ he says, posed at the window, about to swing away. “It’s probably not good for her to be so dirty.”

"You need special stuff for that too,” Johnny informs him.

“Well, figure something out until I get back,” Peter tosses over his shoulder, swinging away.

* * *

Johnny heaves a sigh and rolls his eyes, even though Peter can’t see it.

Hey. Sue might still have some of Val’s old stuff hidden away somewhere. She’s nostalgic like that.

“That’s it,” Johnny says, heading for the door. “I’m wakin’ Sue up.”

He pads down the hall to her bedroom. When he nudges the door open, he sees that Sue's currently busy being the little spoon to Reed's big spoon. 

She looks so comfy, it's kind of a shame to wake her, but the baby's starting to squirm again, and if she starts to cry she might wake the whole house. 

The last thing Johnny needs right now are all of the FF kids trailing after them and poking at the baby. They need to make sure she's okay first. 

He juggles the kid around so she's cradled in his left arm, and then he reaches out with his free hand and shakes his sister's shoulder.

"Sue!" he says urgently. "Sue! Wake _up_!"

He used to do this to her all the time when he was a kid. Mostly when he had nightmares. And when there were lightning storms, but he's never going to admit that to anyone.

Sue's eyes flutter, but she keeps them closed. "Go 'way, Johnny," she mumbles, and burrows deeper into her pillow. 

Heh. So that hasn't changed either.

"It's an emergency," he tells her. "So wake up."

Sue reluctantly props herself up on one elbow and flicks the light on. They all wince against the bright light, and now Johnny sees that Reed's awake too. Probably for the best, Johnny thinks. They'll need a medical work-up on the kid to make sure her stint in that cold dumpster didn't do any lasting harm.

"What's going on?" Sue says, and she's obviously only half awake. 

Johnny points at the baby, tilting her so Sue can see what he's holding isn't just a pile of dirty blankets, and Sue's eyes open wide. _Now_ she's awake. "Johnny, where did you get that baby?" she asks warily.

"Peter found her in a dumpster," Johnny informs her. "I need any baby stuff you've got."

"A dumpster?" Reed asks incredulously, peering at the baby over Sue's shoulder. "Who would leave a child in a dumpster?"

"Someone who didn't have any other choice, I would imagine," Sue says, and she's getting to her feet and pulling on her blue robe with a yawn. "I've got a few of Val's old things. I'll see if I can remember where I left them."

She leaves the room, all businesslike, and Johnny has no doubt she'll have them located in no time.

Reed gets up too. "You should wake Ben," he tells Johnny. "Get him to help you give her a bath. She rather needs it."

Johnny peers down into her little face, and it's covered in a thin layer of dirt. "Yeah," he says. "Good idea."

Babies usually love baths anyways, so it might help cheer her up. Johnny's going to pretend it was his idea, and not Peter's or Reed's.

"Bring her to the med bay when you're done," Reed orders, tying the ends of his robe's belt together. "Let's see if we can figure out who her parents are."

"Okay," Johnny agrees, because it sounds sensible. "But I'm feeding her first."

He turns and heads for Ben's room.

* * *

Ben's harder to wake, always has been, but he takes one look at Johnny clutching a tiny baby to his chest and starts to laugh.

"It's not _funny_ ," Johnny insists, holding her tighter, already feeling weirdly overprotective of her, even though it's only been a few minutes since he first saw her. "She was in a _dumpster_."

"A dumpster?" Ben says, sitting up indignantly, smile disappearing from his face. That's one thing about Ben--he adores kids.

"Yeah," Johnny confirms. "Reed said to tell you to help me give her a bath. Sue's hunting down Val's old stuff."

"What's a fella gotta do ta get some sleep around here, anyways?" Ben grumbles, but it's all for show and they both know it. He's already whipping the blankets aside and getting to his feet, even while he's saying it.

* * *

When Ben and Johnny get to the bathroom, there's already baby soap, a clean glass, some washcloths, a pink set of footie pjs, and a stack of clean towels waiting for them on the counter.

Sue's a pretty quick worker. 

* * *

When Johnny pops open the buttons to the baby's onesie and slips it off, he sees that her belly button looks like it's only recently healed. 

"She can't be more than a month old," he murmurs to himself, but Ben hears him. 

"Yeah," Ben says, glancing over as he fills the sink with a few inches of warm water. "That seems about right fer a kid her size." He smiles at Johnny. "Who knows, kid?" he teases. "Maybe she'll turn out to be a runt, just like you."

"I'm normal-sized, Benjy," Johnny says loftily, hoisting the baby up on his shoulder and dipping a finger into the water Ben's pouring into the sink to test the temperature. He shakes his head. "Too hot, buddy."

* * *

When Johnny's finally satisfied with the temperature, he slips her in cautiously. She coos at the sudden warmth and instantly looks happier.

* * *

Ben holds the baby up in the sink while Johnny wipes carefully at her with a washcloth. 

The baby looks so small against Ben's huge hand. Johnny tries not to let himself think about that too much.

Johnny stops everything and stares when her tiny hand curls around one of his fingers. It's so small it hardly even goes the whole way around. She stares up at him and gurgles and clutches on like she doesn't ever want to let go. Or maybe Johnny's just imagining it. "Hey," he asks Ben. "Do you think Pete 'nd me will be able to keep her?"

Ben gives Johnny a knowing look. "This's kinda what you've always wanted, ain't it?" he asks. "The Webhead. Kids. A family."

"Yeah," Johnny agrees, wiping the grime off of her little face as delicately as he can. She scrunches up her little nose at it. It's adorable. Johnny wishes he had a camera. "I guess it kind of is."

Were Val and Franklin really ever this small and fragile? Johnny doesn't understand how Reed and Sue were ever able to bear letting their kids out of their sight, if they had been. 

Johnny just wants to pick her up, cradle her against his chest, and never let her go. And she isn't really even _his_. Not yet, anyways.

Some part of Johnny hopes they never figure out who her parents are. They left her in a dumpster. How good at parenting can they be? Johnny'll be a better parent than that, that's for damn sure.

He reaches out for the glass, scoops up some of the warm water, and pours it over the baby. She coos gratefully at him and a little smile flickers over her face. His heart melts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to chat with me on [tumblr](http://timelordsandladies.tumblr.com/)!


	2. Chapter 2

Peter stumbles back in through the elevator, a dozen bags or so hanging off of his wrists. 

He's never been more happy about his superstrength than he is right now. Even with it, the handles are digging into his wrists so much that they're cutting off the circulation to his hands.

"Peter," he hears Sue call from the kitchen. He's making a lot of noise, what with the rustling and the bumping into things, so it's no surprise she heard him come in. "Is that you?"

"Yeah," he calls back, and then he hears her footsteps thudding closer. He sets the bags down and waits there in the hallway for her, rubbing at his sore wrists and wincing.

She raises her eyebrows at him when she rounds the corner. He probably looks like a disorganized, disheveled mess. He'd kind of thrown on his street clothes in a hurry after ducking into an alley on his way into the store, and finding a taxi at this time of night had been a pain. It was a shame he couldn't just websling over, but there were way too many bags to carry for that.

"Did you buy everything I told you to buy?" she asks. 

"Yep," Peter nods. "Bought all of it. Baby stuff is _expensive_. Why exactly do babies need so much stuff, again?"

"Because they're babies," Sue says as she starts rooting through the bags, looking for something. "I'm going to need the formula, bottles, and water," she tells him. "Any clue where they wound up?"

"Over here," Peter says, snagging the formula and handing it to her. 

Sue takes it with one hand as she pulls the bottles out of a different bag with the other. She clutches both to her chest. "Water?" 

Peter spots it in a bag to his right and hands that over too. 

Sue turns to go, but catches herself like she's just thought of something. She turns back to ask him smilingly, "So, how does it feel to finally be a dad?" 

"Uh," Peter stalls, eyes widening. "Am...I?"

Sue frowns. "Peter, you brought a baby home to Johnny. Were you not planning on keeping her?"

"I...didn't think that far ahead?" Peter explains. He really, really hadn't. He'd just done what seemed to make sense at the moment. "She was crying, and it was cold, so I brought her home to the Baxter Building." He throws up his hands. "She was a crying, abandoned baby! What was I _supposed_ to do? Leave her there?"

Sue sighs, sets down the stuff she was carrying, walks over to him, and clasps his shoulders. "Thing is, Peter, you didn't bring a crying, abandoned baby home," she says, looking him squarely in the eyes.

"I...didn't?" Peter asks, confused.

"No," she says with a little shake of her head. "You brought a crying, abandoned baby _to my brother_." She pauses to let that sink in. It's true--Johnny really loves kids. If Peter ever loses track of him at a party or at the mall or something, he just follows the sounds of children's laughter, and sure enough, that's where his husband is, making funny faces and drawing stuff in the air with his fire powers, while the kids love every second of it. Peter's had to grab him by the scruff of his neck and physically drag him away from groups of roving children on numerous occasions. "Didn't it occur to you that he might want to keep her?"

"No," Peter says. "I really didn't think about it like that."

He hadn't thought about it at all, if he's being honest.

Sue sighs and looks up at the ceiling. She looks pretty done with Peter right now. "You two," she mutters to herself, shaking her head a little. "No wonder it took you so long to start dating."

"What does _that_ mean?" Peter says indignantly. So, okay, it had maybe kind of been years before he realized that Johnny had been pining for him just as hard as he'd been pining for Johnny, but they'd worked it out eventually! And now look at them. Living in wedded bliss. 

Granted, the bliss could've started years ago if they both hadn't been so oblivious, but that's completely beside the point, Sue!

Sue doesn't answer, like maybe it's just so obvious she's not even going to deign to answer it. She gathers up her stuff and heads back to the kitchen. "Tell Johnny I'll have a bottle ready for him when he's done with her bath," she calls over her shoulder. "And talk to him."

Peter nods, sighs, picks up his bags, and heads upstairs.

* * *

When he passes his and Johnny's bedroom, he sees that Reed and Ben have their heads bent together over an instruction manual, white pieces of wood and a small mattress spread out all around them on the floor. 

"Hey," he asks, a little surprised. "What are you two up to?"

"Crib," Reed says distractedly, frowning down at the instructions. "These store-bought versions can be rather difficult to assemble."

"Yer tellin' me," Ben grumbles, as he gingerly tries to screw together two bits of wood that don't really look like they go together, but, hey, maybe Peter's wrong.

"Yes, well," Reed says, waving a hand. "I'll design a better one for you two later, Peter. Perhaps as a present when the formal adoption goes through. You're just lucky Sue had this one squirreled away."

"What happened to Val's?" Peter asks. 

Reed shoots a look at Ben, who's doing his best to look innocent.

"Ahem," Reed says diplomatically. "Ask Ben."

"The runt put _itchin' powder_ in my _pants_ ," Ben protests. "I wuz on a _date_!"

"What does that have to do with Val's crib?" Peter asks, lost.

"He chased Johnny through one of our storage areas," Reed explains calmly. "Right through her old crib."

"I said I was sorry!" Ben says defensively. 

Reed doesn't say anything, but Peter can tell they've talked about this a dozen times, probably much less calmly.

"Oh, please remind Jonathan that we need to check the baby over," Reed says when Peter turns to leave. "The med bay is all ready. And this crib will be ready shortly as well."

A crib. In their _bedroom_. Peter really _hadn't_ stopped to think about what bringing a baby home would mean for him and his life and his marriage.

He heads down the hall without another word.

* * *

He finds Johnny in the bathroom, patting the baby dry with a fluffy white towel. She's gurgling and squirming and kicking her little legs around, and being livelier than Peter's ever seen her. She's definitely feeling better after her bath and all of the smiling faces.

Johnny catches sight of him in the mirror and smiles. "Hey," he says. He sounds happy.

Peter feels guilty, because he's maybe going to ruin that. He lets the bags fall off of his wrists. "Hey," he says back. "I got the stuff."

"Did you buy the whole store?" Johnny inquires, quirking up an eyebrow, amused. 

Peter looks down. It _is_ a lot of stuff, he guesses, but Sue texted him saying they'd need it. What was he supposed to do?

"Sue told me to buy all of this," Peter says helplessly. "Do we not really need it?"

The baby coos at the sound of his voice.

Johnny smiles down at her at the little noise. He starts cooing back and tickling her playfully. She kicks her little legs and gurgles at him. He pretends he's eating her tiny little arm when she accidentally whacks him across the mouth, and she seems to really like that. Peter wants to die a little, they're so sweet together.

"Of course we need it, don't we, baby?" Johnny says in his best baby-talk voice. "We're going to get you so much more than that, aren't we, little princess? All of the cutest toys and most fashionable clothes. How would you like an FF onesie? Maybe one with my face on it? Would you like one with my face on it? You like my face, don't you?" 

He puts his face on her stomach and starts blowing raspberries. She sounds delighted.

Peter looks off to the side, feeling alarmed. He just brought her here because he didn't know where else to take her, but it sounds like Johnny really does want to adopt her, and he's definitely getting really attached, just like Sue warned, and Peter...well, he doesn't know how he feels about any of this yet.

"Yeah," he says weakly. "We should totally get her that stuff." 

Johnny glances up at his reflection in the mirror, like he's caught that there's something up with Peter. "Hand me a diaper, would you?" he says, strategically changing the subject.

Peter roots around until he finds the bag of diapers, and tosses it at Johnny. 

"Whoa!" Johnny says, twisting and catching it easily. "Careful tossing things around the baby. You wouldn't want to hit her or something. She's tiny."

Peter looks down at her. She _is_ tiny. She is very, _very_ tiny, and fragile, and totally dependent on them for her survival, and it's a little terrifying and definitely overwhelming. 

Johnny seems completely at ease with sudden unexpected fatherhood, humming a little tune at the baby as he skillfully puts on her diaper and then her pink little pjs. Peter can just imagine him having done the same for Franklin and Valeria a million times.

(Peter can't help but squint at Johnny when he realizes his husband is humming "Shake It Off" at the baby.)

Peter, in contrast, is having some difficulty wrapping his head around maybe being a dad now. He feels like they maybe should've discussed whether or not they were going to adopt her, like Sue said, but everyone seems to be assuming that the adoption is a done deal. Peter can't let go of the fact that they don't even know where she came from, or if her parents are alive, or if that's even a possibility.

Everything is happening so fast, and Peter isn't sure if he wants this to be happening. When he woke up this morning, he wasn't expecting to go to sleep maybe being a dad.

He looks up to find Johnny watching him in the mirror. "Okay," Johnny sighs. "I know that look. That's your 'I'm acting calm on the outside, but I am having a mini meltdown on the inside' face. Last seen when you heard them announce that they were making another _Star Wars_ movie. What's up, dude?"

"This is just...kind of sudden?" Peter tries.

Johnny wraps the baby in a clean new blanket, picks her up, and presses her against his chest, one hand splayed across her back, keeping her in place. He turns around to frown at Peter. "Do you not want kids?" he asks. "Is that what this is about? Because I have been _very_ clear about wanting them."

"Of _course_ I want kids," Peter reassures him. "I just don't know if I'm ready for kids _now_. I don't know anything about babies, Johnny! If we'd adopted one the normal way, I'd've had _months_ to read books on raising kids, and taking care of babies, but I didn't, and I haven't, and I don't know anything about it! I am _so_ not prepared for this!"

Okay, Peter sounded a little more hysterical than he'd meant to during that last part. Erm. During all of it, really.

But being asked to take care of a baby when you have no clue how to? Pretty damn terrifying.

Johnny rolls his eyes. "Technically we don't even know if we'll be able to keep her," he reminds Peter, but he sounds pretty down about that.

"I know," Peter mutters, slouching against the doorframe.

"But even if we can't adopt _her_ ," Johnny says, "I want to try to adopt a baby." He cranes his neck to smile at the one he has now. "Although I really, really want to keep her." He looks back at Peter. "I wanna keep her, Pete." He sounds pretty serious about that.

"What if I suck at being a dad?" Peter asks quietly, staring at Johnny's back in the mirror. "What if she hates me? What if I can't do it?"

The look on Johnny's face softens. "Pete," he says soothingly, "you've beaten the Green Goblin like half a dozen times. You've taken down Doc Ock and a dozen other supervillains. You're one of the best superheroes out there, Pete, and I'm not just sayin' that 'cause I'm married to you. C'mon, buddy, I think you can handle a tiny baby."

"Yeah," Peter says, looking down at the tile floor. "I guess."

Johnny sighs. "Look," he says, "you'll get the hang of it. You just need experience. And until you hit your stride, well, Ben and Sue and Reed and me are all pros at this. We've been through it twice. It's not like you're raising a baby alone. You'll be a great dad, Pete. There's no doubt in my mind about that."

Peter nods, feeling a little better, but still not convinced.

* * *

They take her down to the kitchen afterwards, where Sue is waiting with a bottle of baby formula.

"How is she?" Sue asks when she sees them. 

"Better," Johnny says, smiling at her. "She's making noises now of the not-crying variety."

"Good," Sue says, smiling back, pleased. She holds out a clean towel and the bottle. "So who's doing the honors? I thought it'd be a good idea to warm it up for her, given that she was out in the cold for so long."

"Good idea," Johnny says approvingly. "This is why you're the super-mom." Sue looks pleased at that too. 

Peter eyes the counter, where there's a row of other bottles filled with carefully measured water, just waiting for formula to be mixed in.

There are a lot of them.

"Um," Peter says. "Just how often does she eat?"

Sue hums and smooths her hand over the baby's head. "Maybe six to eight times a day?" she says at last. "Depends on whether or not she's having a growth spurt. If she is, she'll clusterfeed, and it'll be more than that. Like every hour during the day. And expect to be woken up at least twice a night because she's hungry. Maybe more, if she's one of those fussy ones who only eats a little at time. Val was like that."

"Color me shocked," Peter mutters.

Johnny snorts. Sue doesn't seem to have heard Peter. She's too engrossed in examining the baby's face.

"You know," she says, frowning, "she reminds me of someone. I don't know who, but she reminds me of someone."

"Really?" Johnny says, trying to get a look at the baby's face, but he can't because she's facing away from him.

Sue shakes her head and gives up. "It'll come to me," she says. She looks back and forth between Peter and Johnny. "So," she repeats, "who's feeding her?"

Johnny looks over at Peter and waggles his eyebrows. "Pete, you wanna give it a shot?"

Peter's eyes widen. "Um," he says nervously. "Are you sure it'll be okay? I don't know anything about feeding babies."

Sue and Johnny exchange glances. 

"It'll be fine, Pete," Johnny says reassuringly. "It's just a bottle." He hooks his foot around a chair leg and yanks it out. "Sit. This is easier if you're sitting."

Peter does, but hesitantly. "Now what?" he asks. 

"Put your arms like this," Sue says, demonstrating the proper way to cradle a baby. "Remember to always support her head. Babies' heads are too big for their necks."

Peter mimics the arrangement of her arms. 

"Good," she says encouragingly, squeezing his shoulder. "That's perfect."

"See, Pete?" Johnny says. "It's not that hard. The most important thing to remember, and this goes for pretty much any time you're holdin' her, Pete, is not to drop her. As long as you've got that down, you're probably fine. And don't hold her upside down either. That's also bad."

Peter can't help it, he rolls his eyes. He may not know anything about taking care of babies, but everybody knows _that_. "Yeah, yeah," he says. "Okay, fine, hand the baby over."

Johnny grins at him and places the baby carefully in his arms, so that her head is resting in the crook of his elbow.

Peter looks down at the warm little mass of flailing, uncoordinated limbs and her unfocused blue eyes and her tiny little nose. "Uh, hey, baby," he says awkwardly, not really knowing how to talk to her the way Johnny does. 

She coos happily at him anyways. She locks eyes, smiles, and waves her arms at him. She seems delighted to see him, for some reason. Maybe she just likes his face.

Peter leans down to press a kiss against her forehead. He can't resist it, she's just so cute. Who knew there was such a cute baby hiding under all of that dirt?

When he tries to straighten up again, she hooks her tiny fist on his lower lip and pulls. It hurts a little, but it's very cute.

When Peter looks up, grinning, he finds Sue and Johnny whispering at each other. "What?" he asks warily.

They look at him guiltily. 

"Nothing," Sue says hastily. "It's just...she's acting the way babies do with their parents. Like she knows you."

Peter frowns. How is that possible? "Maybe I look like her dad?" he suggests. "Or maybe she's grateful that I saved her?"

"Yeah," Johnny says, already having lost interest, and grabs the ready-made bottle from the counter to hand it to Peter. "That must be it."

* * *

Peter watches while she sucks at the bottle contentedly and starts to nod off, her dark blue little eyes drifting shut slowly, her little hand fisted in his shirt.

It's mesmerizing. More so than it has any right to be. 

"She's really cute," he tells Johnny quietly, who's sitting next to him, arm around his shoulders. 

"Yeah," Johnny whispers back, smiling fondly at him. "I know. Having her as a daughter wouldn't suck, now would it?"

Peter shrugs. "Maybe," he says noncommittally. 

But really, he's thinking that he likes this. He decides that he could definitely get used to it.

It's...strangely peaceful, sitting here in the kitchen, everything around him still and silent, with Johnny's arm circling his shoulders and a baby sleeping in his arms.

It feels right. Like things are supposed to be like this. Like this is what his life should always be.

Okay, so maybe adopting a baby so unexpectedly could turn out okay. Maybe everything is going to be fine.

Peter cranes his neck to look at the towel Sue'd draped over his shoulder. "So, uh, what's the towel for?"

"In case you need to burp her," Johnny says casually, eyes fixed on the baby's face. 

"Why do I need a towel for that?" Peter inquires. He doesn't get it. Aren't burps just air?

Johnny just gives him a startled look and bursts out laughing.

Peter doesn't like the way he's laughing.

* * *

Peter figures out what sparked the laughter around the time the baby spits up all over his back.

He hands her back without a word to Johnny.

Johnny is covering his mouth, but Peter isn't fooled. He can hear the muffled snickers and he can see Johnny's eyes, bright with barely-contained laughter.

Johnny's attempts at self-restraint vanish completely when Peter complains that he still has his Spidey-suit on under his shirt. His Spidey-suit that is now covered in disgusting milky baby throw-up, because that towel was _not_ enough protection. Johnny really should've warned him.

"This is nothing," Johnny tells him, voice full of laughter. "Wait until the first time she projectile poops on you. Franklin ruined one of my favorite shirts that way. I had to burn it immediately. Except that it was one of my unstable molecule shirts, so that didn't work out too well. There was this whole thing about how to get rid of it. Reed even got involved."

"That's not _helping_ ," Peter hisses. Great. Now he can't wear any clothes he likes around the baby, not ever. He also thinks he might have nightmares about projectile poop. He'll never be able to look at Franklin the same way, that's for sure. " _How_ is that helping?"

"Babies are messy," Johnny replies with a shrug as Peter walks towards the door. "You get used to it. Really. It stops being gross after awhile."

Peter is sure he'll _never_ get used to it. He definitely doesn't want to ever think that being covered in vomit is an acceptable state of being.

"I'm changing my clothes," he announces. He glances at Johnny's bare chest. "And I'm bringing you a shirt too. Have you been walking around shirtless this whole time, Captain Kirk?"

Johnny looks down and frowns. "Oh, yeah," he says. "I forgot about that." He glances up at Peter with an amused look in his eye. "Do you _actually_ mind, Webhead? Cause if you do, I'm clearly doing something wrong." He gasps, but it's playful and teasing. "Peter, is the magic gone? Is our marriage dead? Be honest, now."

Peter hesitates. Well, no, he actually really doesn't mind at all. And the magic is definitely, definitely not gone. If they didn't have a baby to take care of, Peter would've hauled Johnny to bed ages ago, and by the time Peter was through, Johnny's shirt wouldn't have been the only article of clothing he'd be missing.

He's just a little upset at Johnny right now over his very not funny prank, and pointing out his shirtlessness was the way he chose to express that irritation.

It was, in retrospect, maybe not the best choice. Johnny is a beautiful sight--shirtless, smiling, cradling a pink, drowsy baby--and one that Peter doesn't think he's likely to forget anytime soon. If he put a picture of this on Instagram, it'd probably break the Internet. Good thing he doesn't have a camera on him.

Peter rolls his eyes, grudgingly mutters, "No, not really," and trudges upstairs to the all too familiar sound of Johnny laughing at him.

Some days he loves being married more than others. He still hasn't decided which of the two today is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to chat with me on [tumblr](http://timelordsandladies.tumblr.com/)!


	3. Chapter 3

When Peter gets up to their bedroom, he finds that Reed and Ben left behind them a perfect white crib. 

Peter stands next to it and stares. He just doesn't know if he's ready for this yet.

He reaches out and runs his fingertips lightly along the rail, and tries to imagine what it'll be like, having the baby sleep there every night.

* * *

Once he changes his shirt, Peter goes back downstairs to look for Johnny, but he's nowhere to be found.

He figures out eventually that Johnny's up in the med bay. He finds him still holding onto the baby, arguing in comically loud whispers with Reed because Reed wants Johnny to put her down so he can examine her, and Johnny is adamantly opposed to that idea.

Peter thinks that it's maybe best if he keeps out of this.

"Just for five minutes, Johnny," Reed pleads. "Just for a quick exam."

"She's _sleeping_ , Reed," Johnny hisses. "I _just_ got her to sleep. Do we really need to do this _now_?"

"Johnny," Sue intercedes, ever the voice of reason, "she was out in the cold in a filthy dumpster, and we don't know for how long, or how long she went without eating. We need to check her out to make sure she's fine. You don't want something serious to happen to her."

That seems to get through to Johnny more than anything Reed has been saying, because he doesn't say anything, just looks down at the baby where she's sleeping against his chest. "But," he says helplessly, "look at her. She's so...c'mon, it really can't wait?"

"I don't think that's wise, Jonathan," Reed says gently, in that very fatherly tone of voice that nearly always works wonders on Johnny.

"C'mon, squirt," Ben urges. "Do what Stretch tells you. You know he's always right."

Sue snorts. "Well, he likes to think he is, anyhow," she says.

"Yes, well," Reed says, seeming eager to change the subject. "John. This is the best move. You know it's true."

Peter decides it's time to say something. "Johnny," he says, slipping an arm around his husband's waist, "she can sleep when it's over. They're right, we need to make sure she's healthy."

Johnny sighs. "Fine," he says bitterly. "Fine."

He sets her down on the exam table as gently as he can. He looks up at Reed. "Okay, dude, do your thing. She better not wake up."

"She very likely will," Reed warns. "I'll need to take her temperature and do a dozen other exams. And I'll need to swab her cheek for the DNA exam."

Johnny rubs at his face wearily. He looks unhappy. "Okay," he says. "Just get it over with."

* * *

Out of the corner of his eye, Johnny notices Peter find his typical perch on the wall, arms crossed, as he watches Reed's movements intently. Sue and Ben are talking quietly on the far side of the room. Johnny's pretty sure it's about him.

They're probably trying to figure out how to handle him. Johnny hates being handled.

He can't deal with that right now. He wanders over and leans on the wall next to to his husband. He's worried about the baby. Where she came from, why her parents would abandon her in a dumpster of all places, whether her parents are going to come looking for her, whether her stint in the dumpster screwed up her health.

He sighs worriedly.

Peter's been married to him long enough to know what he needs immediately. "She'll be okay," he murmurs, putting his arm around Johnny's shoulders. "Everything'll work out, babe. You'll see."

Johnny leans against him. He wraps a hand around Peter's knee and rests his arm along Peter's thigh. "Yeah," he says. "I hope so."

They both look up, alarmed, when Reed tuts as he takes her temperature. 

"What?" Johnny asks warily.

"Stay calm," Reed says. "Her temperature is slightly elevated."

Johnny's eyes go wide. "Does that--is she getting sick?" He knows he sounds like he's panicking, and that's because he is. He turns to look back at Peter, eyes wide as saucers. 

Reed shakes his head. "It's too soon to tell," he replies. "Her temperature could be elevated simply because your body temperature is so high. You were holding her. That could easily be it."

"Or she could be getting sick," Peter interjects, squeezing Johnny's shoulder tighter. "Is there anything we should watch out for?"

"Well, sneezing or coughing or a runny nose would be clear signs," Reed says. "And you may want to keep checking her temperature."

"Relax, boys," Sue says. "Every baby gets sick eventually. Nearly all of them survive it."

" _Nearly_?!" Johnny says, even more alarmed. "Sis, that is _not_ helping!"

"Johnny," Sue says, "calm down. I never pegged you for overprotective parent. That's a surprise."

"She's _tiny_ , okay?" Johnny protests. "She's _really_ tiny. You can't blame me for worrying."

"I remember when you was that tiny, squirt," Ben reminisces fondly.

"No, you don't," Johnny scoffs. "You didn't even know me then."

"Oh, yeah," Ben says. "When I met you, runt, you was mebbe a foot or two taller."

Johnny rolls his eyes. He was maybe thirteen the first time he met Ben, around the time Reed was living with Johnny's aunt. So he was definitely more than two or three feet tall. "Not _now_ , Benjy!" he says, exasperated.

He knows Ben's just trying to distract him, but he has no patience for jokes right now. The baby could be sick.

Peter puts his hand on Johnny's shoulder and squeezes. "Hey, babe," he murmurs, so only Johnny can hear, "she'll be okay, even if she does get sick. We'll handle it together, right? Like you said."

Johnny sags a bit beneath Peter's touch, and leans back against him. "Right. Right," he says, breathing deeply and trying to calm himself down. "Okay. We can handle this."

Peter kisses his temple and smiles at him. "I guess we're both freaking out about this a little, huh?"

Johnny snorts. "Yeah, okay, maybe," he admits. "But for totally different reasons. Yours are way lamer."

Peter rolls his eyes.

* * *

Johnny's fingers dig into Peter's thigh when the baby wakes up and starts crying. He wants to rush over and hold her, but Reed says he's not done yet.

* * *

Reed tells them that the results for the DNA test won't be back until tomorrow morning, so he sends them all off to bed. 

Johnny has the baby back in his arms about two seconds after Reed says it's okay, and he tries to ignore the way Ben and Sue grin at him because of it. 

She's _little_ , okay?

* * *

Johnny scoffs when Peter assumes the baby will be sleeping in the crib tonight. No how, no way. 

If she is getting sick, Johnny wants her as close as possible. It's what Sue would do, and Johnny plans on being as much like her as possible. She's a great parent. Always has been.

He carefully places the baby on the bed, right between him and Peter, and curls around her protectively.

She'll be sleeping there tonight, safe where he can see her, and for as many nights as Peter will let him keep doing it.

The crib is much too far away.

* * *

Johnny falls asleep watching her little chest rise and fall.

* * *

Peter wakes up in the middle of the night because he hears Johnny singing softly.

He coaxes his eyes open and sees Johnny's dim figure, pacing back and forth slowly in front of the pale light of the window as he bottle-feeds the baby and sings a quiet lullaby to soothe her. Peter can't really make out the words.

He watches Johnny, spellbound.

He loves his husband more than he could ever say, and it's moments like this that remind him of that.

He thinks that the sight of Johnny with a baby in his arms is the most beautiful he's ever seen. He's lost count of how many times he's thought that tonight.

Make no mistake, Peter's been blessed--he's seen some truly wondrous things in his life. He's seen the shining silver spires of an alien city glimmering off in the distance across a field of grass as red as the roses of Earth. He's had his breath stolen by the sight of New York at sunrise, the whole city glittering beneath him, the sky above him more beautiful than anything a painter could ever hope to reproduce. He's seen the stars in the sky, sparkling brighter than any diamond ever could, from so close that he felt like all he had to do was reach out his hand to pluck one and keep it in his pocket. 

He realizes that he'd willingly trade every single one of those memories for more like this one.

He decides then and there that he wants to keep this baby. 

It's funny how that decision makes everything else seem so simple. All of his worries just melt away.

He slips out of bed and pads over to Johnny. He wraps his arms around Johnny's waist, presses against his back, and peers down at the baby over Johnny's shoulder. "How is she?" he whispers.

"Good," Johnny whispers back. "No signs she's sick. Checked her temperature and everything."

"Awesome," Peter says. He clears his throat. "So, um, I was thinking, and, well, if you want to keep her, I'm totally cool with it. Actually, I'm pretty excited about it."

Johnny cranes his neck and smiles at Peter. "Yeah?" he says, pleased.

"Yeah," Peter confirms. He smiles too.

"Cool," Johnny says, as he melts back against Peter. "So we should probably think of a name, then."

Peter has already thought about this. He's known for years what he would call his daughter, if he ever had one. "How do you feel about calling her May?" he asks.

"May," Johnny says, like he's trying it out. "Yeah, I could see calling her May. Your aunt is gonna be thrilled."

"Yeah," Peter replies. Aunt May will be ecstatic when she hears about all of this. He should call her first thing in the morning, he reminds himself, or she'll never forgive him.

"How do you feel about making her middle name Susan?" Johnny asks.

"May Susan Parker," Peter says, trying it out. "I like it."

"May Susan Storm, you mean," Johnny retorts.

"May Susan Parker-Storm?" Peter tries.

"May Susan Storm-Parker," Johnny says firmly.

"Parker-Storm has a better ring to it," Peter says.

"No, it doesn't!" Johnny scoffs. 

"It's alphabetical," Peter points out.

"But Storm-Parker just kinda rolls off the tongue, don't you think?" Johnny muses. "Although maybe we should just leave off the Parker completely, I'm thinking."

"Oh, are you now?" Peter says. "Cause, see, I was thinking the Storm should maybe go."

Johnny pretends to consider that. "Nah," he says, shaking his head. "Storm is way better. May Storm is a superhero name. May Parker sounds like a basketball coach."

"May Storm sounds like someone asking if it's going to rain," Peter says dryly. "It sounds stupid."

Johnny gasps, mock-outraged. "Are you saying my last name is stupid, Parker? Those're fightin' words, you know."

"Yes," Peter confirms. "That is exactly what I'm saying. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I said."

"Shut up," Johnny says, but he sounds amused more than he does irritated. "Settle it tomorrow?"

"Okay," Peter agrees. "Duel to the death at sunrise?"

"Deal," Johnny says. "It'll be just like old times. I'm gonna win, just so you know. Become a hot widower. I'll look good in black."

"Wow," Peter says, doing his best to sound shocked. "You are so delusional it amazes me sometimes. There's no way you're beating me."

"I think you mean brilliant," Johnny corrects. "Also handsome. And also, just watch me. And yes, I can understand being amazed by the wonder that is me."

"Nope," Peter says. "Pretty sure I meant what I said."

"I would also accept smarter than you," Johnny suggests. "And better than you in every conceivable way too."

"Yeah, neither of those things are true," Peter says.

"I think they're both very true," Johnny counters. "Agree to disagree?"

Peter sighs and makes a show of rolling his eyes. "I guess."

They both fall silent as they watch the newly-named May suck drowsily at her bottle.

"So," Peter ventures, "can I hold May, maybe?"

Johnny snorts. "Nope. Nice try. It's my turn to feed her. You've got the next one, so you might wanna get some sleep."

Peter doubts whether they'll be fighting over who gets to feed her after they've been doing this a few days. "Okay," he says, "bed it is. Kiss goodnight?"

Johnny twists around enough to kiss Peter. The angle is awkward, but it's still enough to make Peter's toes curl. They've kissed thousands of times by now, but it's lost none of its newness, none of its thrill for Peter.

"Hey," Peter says when Johnny breaks off the kiss, just because he feels like saying it, because he doesn't say it enough, because he never can, "you know I really love you, right? Like a lot."

Johnny smiles at him, slow and sweet and so very, very in love. "Yeah, Pete," he says. "Figured it out around the time you asked me to marry you."

"Right," Peter says, a little embarrassed. They normally aren't so touchy-feely about stuff. They both know they adore each other, but they hardly ever get around to saying it outright. "Right. Just, you know, checking. To make sure we're both on the same page and all."

"Go to sleep, you sap," Johnny says affectionately. 

"Sleep," Peter says. "Good idea."

He presses a kiss against Johnny's shoulder and moves away somewhat reluctantly. 

He can still feel the heat from Johnny's body tingling all along his own.

"Hey, Pete?" Johnny says as Peter's walking back to the bed.

"Yeah?" Peter says, turning back to him.

"I love you too, you know," Johnny says. "Also a lot."

Peter can't hold back the grin that spreads across his face. Couldn't have if he'd tried. "Well," he says. "That's. That's awesome."

It's not like he doesn't already _know_ it. Johnny married him, of course he must love him. But still, it's always nice to hear it. And there's still a little part of Peter that doesn't understand how it's possible, how he could be lucky enough to have Johnny Storm fall in love with him, much less agree to marry him. 

Johnny's beautiful, and brave, and kind, and loyal, and so many other wonderful things. No matter what Peter does, he'll never really deserve him. 

Johnny chuckles and shakes his head at him. " _Sleep_ , moron," he says.

"Who's more of a moron," Peter shoots back, "the moron or the moron who married him?"

"Pete," Johnny chides, "c'mon, man. This's no time to try to seduce me with badly misquoted  _Star Wars_ lines. There's a baby in the room. Think of the children."

Peter snorts and climbs into bed. 

He doesn't fall asleep until after Johnny comes back to bed. He can't--Johnny's too much of a riveting sight. He doesn't want the moment to end. It's perfect.

There've been a dozen or so perfect moments since he and Johnny started dating. This is undoubtedly one of them. 

When Johnny puts May down between them again, Peter scoots over and curls around her too, his hand resting on Johnny's waist.

"Sap," Johnny says again, but he sounds more pleased than anything else.

Hmm, Peter thinks as he drifts off to sleep. He could get used to this. It's not so bad.

* * *

He changes his mind a little bit, he has to admit, when May wakes him with her loud bawling cries about three hours later. She's hungry again.

* * *

Feeding babies is harder than it looks, it turns out? Huh. Who knew?

Getting them back to sleep is even more difficult, Peter realizes belatedly. You have to figure out _exactly_ how they like to be rocked, and, well, Peter hasn't quite figured that out yet.

He winds up having to wake Johnny up.


End file.
